Genetic Ascension

1565 Puzzle Pieces [1500 GT Bonus]

“You’re making me dizzy,” Cassarae complained.

“I can always send you back.”

“When’d you become so sassy?” Cassarae asked with a pout.

Sylas didn’t reply, and her grumbling only became more prominent. The ground beneath them continuously shrank under Sylas’ Runes, causing them to cross kilometers at a time with a careless step. To Sylas, this was fine. But for Cassarae, who didn’t have a Spatial affinity, it felt like her head was being buzzed in a microwave.

Things had been bad enough on the Hollow Wing’s back, but this somehow felt worse. It was like a continuous series of teleportations, and the world was practically spinning around her.

“Is this because of Elara?” Cassarae complained.

Sylas reached over and took Cassarae’s hand, hauling her over his shoulder.

“Hey!”

Sylas ignored her, hopping up as a sweeping blade that felt at least 20 meters long mowed down the entire section of forest.

He gingerly landed on the blade, spatial Runes dancing around him. The centripetal force should have sent him into a spiral, but whereas before the world was shifting impossibly fast around them, now Sylas had managed to do the exact opposite.

It was like they were standing on solid, flat ground…

Until they suddenly weren’t.

Sylas leapt up, and the world flashed. A giant with skin of red and eyeballs of flickering flame appeared as they hovered in the air. Sylas alone wasn’t even as large as its nose.

But the bigger they were, the harder they fell.

Sylas didn’t even bother to look at its stats. He could feel its Will.

It was insignificant.

He punched out.

It was light and almost careless, but it was so crisp the sleeves of his turtleneck snapped almost like a heavy leather jacket.

PUCHI.

In one moment, the giant was fine. In the next, its head had a bloody hole right in the center of it.

Sylas fluttered to the ground like a falling leaf in the dead of fall. He didn’t make a move to let Cassarae down, his gaze tilting a bit.

‘This was the second time… I see…’

The first Demon he faced-the minotaur that fell from the skies-had appeared so suddenly and quickly that Sylas felt its body had to be extremely powerful. But after looking at its stats, he felt that it was little more than a pathetic creature. To have so little strength at the E-tier was more than a little embarrassing.

But now, this flaming giant had appeared out of nowhere despite being so huge.

They were phasing into being. They weren’t originally here; someone was summoning them. That was the only explanation that made any sense right now.

The 20-meter-tall blade trembled. Glowing with emerald gold, it shot into the skies.

With a bend of his knees, Sylas landed on its body, slicing across the clouds.

Runes danced around him, his visualization expanding for kilometers from his body. From time to time, collections of Runes would flash together and clash with something, only disappearing after Sylas had already passed.

Every teleportation ended in failure, one after another. Sylas destroyed the attempt before they could even appear in this world.

His senses were impossibly sharp, and suddenly the sea of enemies he was facing became trivial.

BOOM.

The blade descended from the skies, piercing right through the walls of a city growing with vines of poison.

Sylas knew this city well. He had personally created it, evolving it to this state with a unique Fortress upgrade he had gotten from defeating a Field Dungeon BOSS.

Now the city walls that should have been so supremely powerful were destroyed by a single stroke.

Sylas stood on the hilt of the sword, Cassarae still hauled over his shoulder as the blade trembled.

A looming portal of black and violet hung in the distance.

Sylas only gave it a glance before he turned toward the City Lord Mansion.

From what he remembered, the City Lord Mansion should have been swallowed up by the portal. Back then, he had used the Fortress reward to suppress the Demon World Portal. But it was obvious that whatever he had done back then had long been taken over by another.

If they had wanted, they could have already flooded Earth with Demons. The problem was that it was far too risky. The odds that they’d end up like the Thryskai Demi-God Clan were high. Plus, Earth still had certain protections for the next two months, so there were limits on the level of threats they could produce.

There was also the fact that Demons were heavily suppressed in the Real World. Matching that suppression even further with stepping into a system territory that wasn’t your own would make the Demons pitifully weak here.

So, if they were limited in so many ways, it was best for them to wait until Earth had fully integrated. At least then, they could be more flexible with the kinds of threats they produced.

However, that didn’t explain what they were trying to do at all.

‘Back when I almost killed Moose, the system was going to give me a reward for killing a Demonic Envoy. The reward was interrupted by a message from Legacy…’

He remembered exactly what happened on his status screen back then.

[You have found a Demonic Envoy-]

[An Invitation from Legacy has been extended to you. Please accept at your earliest convenience.] —

He had completely ignored this so-called invitation. Soon after, he had helped the hidden figure of the Purvon Clan to destroy the Demi-God Clan of the Thryskai, opening up a slot for the former to become a new Demi-God Clan of the universe.

The result of that was probably Legacy backing off.

Though, what Sylas didn’t know was that Legacy had sent a Professor after him. The reason he never met this Professor was because Jala had caught the Professor’s attention first, indirectly leading to the destruction of Jala’s Clan.

From the very beginning, the Professor had been here for Sylas.

And now it seemed these scattered pieces were slowly beginning to piece themselves together.

Sylas’ gaze pierced through the City Lord Mansion’s walls.

‘Moose.’